2 Koreas Struggle Over Nuclear Issue
2 Koreas Struggle Over Nuclear Issue
PYONGYANG - Inter-Korean ministerial talks hit a major snag yesterday with the North continuing to brush off the South`s calls for discussions about the communist state`s nuclear threats.
On the second day of the 10th cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang, South Korea pressured North Korea to promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons development program, Seoul officials said. But the North insisted that it will discuss the issue exclusively with the United States, officials said.
The two Koreas also struggled with a joint statement that would address international concerns surrounding the North`s nuclear arms development, as a way to seal their three-day ministerial talks in Pyongyang today.
The ministerial talks, the first of their kind under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, were held after the North`s bombshell admission during last week`s talks in Beijing that it has nuclear weapons.
"We reconfirmed our strong opposition to the North pursuing nuclear weapons and urged them to settle the issue through dialogue as soon as possible," Assistant Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang said, acting as a spokesman for the South Korean delegation.
He said Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, the chief South Korean negotiator, reminded his North Korean counterpart Kim Ryong-song of their earlier statement that it had no intention of developing nuclear weapons and its nuclear activities would be confined to energy production.
"Kim said the nuclear issue should only be dealt with by the North and the United States, and it is the North`s basic stance that it will peacefully resolve the issue through dialogue," Shin said.
He said Minister Jeong noted that the South also has the right to raise the issue because it is a signatory to the 1992 South-North denuclearization declaration.
Despite their tug-of-war over the nuclear issue, the two Koreas broached ways to speed up their economic projects including the establishment of an industrial complex in the North`s southern border city of Gaeseong, reconnection of border-crossing railways and roads and a tourism project to the North`s Mt. Geumgang.
The South also suggested that the two Koreas should provide measures to arrange a new round of reunions for families split by the 1950-53 Korean War and to settle the issue of South Koreans being abducted to the North.
Pyongyang has presented a draft for their joint statement in which it advocated an end to mutual slandering, granting civilian boats safe passage on their respective waters and regularizing unification festivals between the two Koreas, both on a governmental and civic level.
"The results of the talks depend on how much flexibility the North shows regarding the nuclear problem," a South Korean official said.